SCIENCE FILE | Science in Brief

Study Finds the Use of Drugs, Alcohol Escalating Among Women

Women, and especially adolescent girls, are closing the substance abuse gender gap by drinking and using drugs nearly as much as men, according to a report issued by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. But the study said there is little understanding about women's motivations and treatment needs.

According to the report, the percentage of drug addicts who are women doubled between 1960 and the late 1970s. Today, about 40% of crack addicts are women, it said. The proportion of women who abuse prescription drugs, 3.7%, is about the same as among men (3.9%). And girls now are 15 times more likely than their mothers to begin using illegal drugs by the age of 15, the report said.